Contents

Overview

The Liberty City Police Department has around 40,000 police officers who each serve many different roles, most notably "walking the beat" on patrol all throughout Liberty City. They reign in a "complete operational" status over Liberty City, meaning they are the single law enforcement organization in the whole city even if the FIB and NOOSE are also there. The LCPD is then organized into different divisions. They include: the Highway Patrol Division, the Aviation Unit, the plainclothes Organized Crime Control Bureau and Anti-Crime Unit, the Harbor Unit, and the College Patrol Unit.

The Aviation Unit of the LCPD (formed in 2001) has a fleet of Police Mavericks which are on constant patrol. Aviation assistance can be summoned from one of the four police stations with aviation facilities. The Police Mavericks can be seen often in the skies of Liberty City, most often patrolling with Annihilators above major bridges such as the Hickey Bridge and East Borough Bridge, looking for potential sightings of terrorism.

The "College Patrol Unit" is a college type of police force whose officers are found in Varsity Heights and near Vespucci University. They patrol for any unruly behavior typical of college students, such as drinking, drug use, fights, or disturbance of the peace. However if the player commits a crime in the vicinity, these officers will call for back up and try to arrest or kill them as normal.

The LCPD is known for their very aggressive techniques in pursuing crime, most notably saturating an affected area of high crime rate (or one or more individuals committing several crimes in short succession) with dozens of police officers and patrol cars. They take the famous NYPD rationale of having a large police presence, ensuring prevention of and a quick response to crime. In times of emergency they respond appropriately, and pour all available resources into stopping or containing an incident, including NOOSE and/or FIB backup.

The LCPD, along with the NOOSE and the FIB, become extremely aggressive when the player is wanted and continue to use deadly force against player even after the protagonist has died and "grayed out". LCPD officers are sometimes seen writing tickets (as noticed around Middle Park and in Highway Patrol duties on the various bridges where they await speeders). LCPD officers on foot patrol are sometimes seen chasing and apprehending criminals at gunpoint; after they are cornered by the pursuing officer(s), a marked police car is contacted to take the criminal away for processing.

Despite their aggressive response if the player commits a crime, the LCPD can also assist the player if they are attacked by other NPCs. Running past a police officer while another NPC gives chase, or being hit/shot by an NPC while an officer is nearby will result in the officer attempting to take out or arrest the offending NPC, often recruiting other officers nearby in the process.

The LCPD is also on an active recruiting campaign, with "Join The LCPD" posters and billboards at select locations throughout the city, and adorning the front of the LCPD Triangle/Star Junction subway station, (which is in front of a Liberty City services booth). They also appear in the streets if the player dials 911 to summon a Police Vehicle with two police officers inside. The front passenger will check around for any incidents, while the police officer in the Police Vehicle will remain in it unless an emergency occurs. However, if there is nothing happening, the front passenger will return to the Police Vehicle. The front passenger will also tell the driver that nothing happened. Same thing occurs to the driver if nothing happened while he is reaching the Police Vehicle.

If an assailant is confirmed to commit a crime (either via being reported to the police by civilians or being directly sighted by police), or attacks a police officer responding to a 911 call, two officers from a police vehicle (and other police officers in the immediate area), wielding Pistols, will pursue the criminal and attempt to catch him. Responding officers always draw their sidearms when faced with a suspect. If there are not any criminals around, they will get back inside their cruiser and leave or, in case of officers on foot patrol, continue walking.

Unlike civilians, who report crimes via the telephone (a lengthy process), police sightings are reported immediately. Further crimes, such as attacking a police officer, and evading arrest will increase the player's Wanted Level. They can even respond to crimes out of their sight, as civilians can call the police on their cell phones to report crimes.

When the player reaches two stars, additional police vehicles are sent to the area, and the officers in the front passenger seats of the vehicles will step out wielding Pump Shotguns (if fit cops are spotted).

At three stars, the NOOSE "Immigration And Patriotism Authority" will join the fight with NOOSE Patriots and NOOSE Cruisers with LCPD officers firing on the player with shotguns and pistols, as well as a Police Maverick to oversee the scene and follow fleeing suspects. The helicopters will have two LCPD riflemen equipped with Carbine Rifles (or Advanced MGs in The Ballad of Gay Tony) and a LCPD pilot on board; the riflemen will engage the suspect on sight. The front passengers of the NOOSE patrol vehicles will also wield shotguns (if fit cops are spotted).

At four stars, instead of LCPD officers in a Police Maverick, the same helicopter is deployed with two NOOSE "Tactical Response Unit" riflemen with Carbine Rifles or Advanced MGs, and a NOOSE pilot. On the streets, the police will deploy Enforcers carrying four NOOSE Tactical Response Unit officers and/or FIB Buffalos carrying four FIB agents; both of these are equipped with body armor, Carbine Rifles, SMGs, and Pump Shotguns (as well as Assault SMGs and Automatic Shotguns in The Ballad of Gay Tony), with Pistols carried as a backup weapon.

At five and six stars, two NOOSE Annihilators are deployed carrying two NOOSE Tactical Response Unit riflemen with the same Carbine Rifles or Advanced MGs and a NOOSE pilot on board, and Enforcers and/or FIB Buffalos will continue to be sent in alongside regular police officers. Also at five and six stars, the LCPD, NOOSE and FIB will start to shoot out of their vehicles.

Types of officers

Two kinds of police officers tends to vary in their appearance and how they use the assigned equipments listed below:

Overweight officers are more passive on their roles and are more prominent in their patrol vehicles. When pursuing a suspect, they cannot run as fast as the average suspect and are seen wielding their pistols in two hands. They only rely on the basic equipments and their pistols (or sniper rifles), but they are still effective when the time comes to supress the suspect.

Fit officers are somewhat better trained and are more determinant on their actions. When pursuing a suspect, they are likely to catch them, and also sprint towards the criminals if they also attempt to sprint. They are also able to use pump shotguns and carbine rifles, along with the pistols and sniper rifles.

Equipment

Vehicles

In GTA IV, LCPD officers on the streets commonly drive two variants of police cars: the Police Patrol and the Police Cruiser. These serve as their primary pursuit vehicle of choice when the player reaches a 1-3 stars wanted level, and will continue to appear in conjunction with NOOSE and FIB forces in a 4 star wanted level or higher. In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the LCPD is only equipped with the Police Patrol (although game art of both the Police Patrol and Police Cruiser are still used when the player is Busted), and only appears up to a 4 star wanted level (alongside NOOSE Enforcers), as the FIB takes over at 5 stars.

The LCPD also extends their authority in the air in GTA IV with the use of Police Mavericks, which commonly patrol the sky even when the player does not have a wanted level. Police Mavericks will occasionally join a 1 or 2-star wanted level when they happen to be within close proximity of the player, but the helicopter is certain to appear only when the player has a 3 star wanted level with LCPD riflemen armed with Carbine Rifles and a LCPD pilot, however, at 4 stars, the Police Maverick will come with two NOOSE Tactical Response Unit Officers riflemen as well as a NOOSE Tactical Response Unit pilot; the Annihilator takes over from 5-6 stars onwards with NOOSE riflemen armed with Carbine Rifles and a NOOSE pilot.

At sea, the LCPD is equipped with Police Predators, which appear when the player has 3 stars or more. The boats carry a police officer that pursues the player, with two police officers armed with Carbine Rifles at the back who will use deadly force against the player.

The Ballad of Gay Tony also includes two more LCPD Vehicles, the Police Buffalo (named "Police Cruiser" in-game) and the Police Bike, a police motorcycle. Neither vehicle is used by LCPD officers, and they are only available in the Multiplayer of The Ballad of Gay Tony. A third police vehicle, the Police Stinger, does not bear the LCPD's signature blue-and-white livery, but does bear the LCPD's logo. The Police Stinger is also not used by the LCPD officers in-game as a pursuit vehicle.

It should be noted that for the first time in the series, LCPD officers will not hesitate to commandeer civilian vehicles, should no police vehicles be available to them. If necessary, the LCPD will take any ground vehicle, regardless of its performance or speed. This means that if the player enters areas such as the restricted area of Francis International Airport, they may find themselves being pursued by an officer who has commandeered a Ripley or even an Airtug.

Weapons and other portable equipment

The LCPD Officers carry a range of equipment on their gun belts and in their cars. As a weapon of defense, a collapsible baton is in place on the officers' gun belts, but the police officers do not utilize the weapon at all in game. The baton is reinstated in the Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars rendition of the LCPD. The Department-issue police firearm is the Pistol. This is used when making felony arrests, pursuing suspects and in self-defense against a deadly threat. If a police officer is disarmed, they may resort to using their fists to defend themselves. If police officers are patrolling in a Police Cruiser or a Police Patrol (patrol vehicles always have two police officers on board), and the suspect has a two star wanted level or higher, fit police officers will carry the Pump Shotgun with eight shells in the magazine tube. Police officers who are guarding places of high security such as the Statue of Happiness, Civilization Committee Headquarters and the Rotterdam Tower will carry Carbines, which is a good deterrent of both terrorist activity and everyday crime. Police riflemen will also carry Carbines when riding a Maverick or Annihilator, though they can also use Advanced MGs for this purpose as evidenced in The Ballad of Gay Tony. When the suspect has a five star wanted level or more, the LCPD will deploy snipers to shoot the player with Combat Snipers from some rooftops, specifically those in Chinatown and The Exchange. Combat Shotguns are also adopted by the department, but are never seen in action. Instead, they remain inside their police cars, likely as a weapon for situations where a pistol will not be enough.

The LCPD officers also carry personal radios in order to report crimes and call for assistance and backup - they can sometimes be seen talking into them while patrolling, as can security guards.

Uniforms

Artwork for the LCPD during game loading.

The uniforms of the LCPD resemble that of the famous New York Police Department (NYPD).

Depending on the in-game weather, the police officers may be wearing different uniforms, such as a raincoat with LCPD in yellow at the back and a white hat cover, however, some police officers can wear a rain coat with a police hat that doesn't have a white hat cover, only the scripted police officers in missions or throughout Liberty City do, though, like the one of the three police officers in one of the police stations of Algonquin. The uniforms of the police officers are generally navy blue with black buttons and navy blue shoes. Police officers can wear either a long sleeve, short sleeve, or short sleeve with a long sleeve black under shirt. Officers also wear a navy blue LCPD hat and have the choice of wearing ties and police jackets. The tie clips of the police officers have "LCPD" engraved in the middle. Police officers who wear sky blue shirts, as opposed to navy blue shirts, are more seasoned and veteran police officers, as the sky blue color was issued by the NYPD in the 1970s till the late 1990s, and assumingly so by the LCPD. Despite the fact the game classifies them as Traffic Enforcement Officers, they do not perform the usual duties of Traffic Enforcement Officers such as issuing citations and have the same mannerisms and actions like normal police officers, the only difference being the uniform. Traffic Enforcement Officers, unlike their real-life counterparts, are armed. Officers will also wear a pin that says 69 on the collar of their shirts to identify that they are from the 69th precinct.

The Alderney State Police officers wear different uniforms than the Liberty City Police Department; this usually consists of a sky blue shirt (with or without a navy blue jacket on top), and navy blue trousers with a yellow stripe on the side of each leg. The Alderney State Police Department's police uniforms thus bear resemblance to those of the New Jersey State Police (NJSP), however their police stations bear the LCPD logo and their vehicles have LCPD livery.

Uniform gallery

Website

The in-game Internet features an official LCPD website which can be found at Libertycitypolice.com. The website features a secret link at the bottom of the page to the criminal database, which contains profiles for all characters in the game. Despite it is claimed only to be used by officers, the player does not have any kind restriction, nor causes any kind of attention.

The LCPD also set up a sting site known as Littlelacysurprisepageant.com, which is used to catch people attempting to access child pornography. If the website is interfaced, the player will immediately receive a five star Wanted Level after logging off the computer.

Logo

Although the logo is based on the original NYPD, it is clearly noticeable that the LCPD is known for police brutality. In the middle of the logo, two Police Officers are shown with batons dragging a man on the floor. Below this the scales of justice are weighing a coffee cup and a doughnut. The Alderney State police officers bear a State Police logo on their shoulder pads, the same as the NJSP; however, their vehicles and police stations reuse the LCPD logo.

Trivia

Even though they are known for using lethal force, the LCPD is much more tolerant than its counterpart in GTA V; the player can even point a gun at one officer and the officer will not shoot at the player (though this will incur a one-star wanted level due to threatening a police officer). LSPD officers in GTA V are also much more serious than the LCPD ones, and there are no overweight cops. Whereas LCPD officers in GTA IV usually arrest the NPC suspect, LSPD officers open fire immediately at them.

The LCPD Blotter page.

The Alderney State Police serves Alderney, which is a separate state from Liberty City. The only difference between the Liberty City Police Department and the Alderney State Police Department is the uniform. Also, the Alderney State police officers are more serious and less likely to say goofy things and occasionally will even announce themselves as State Troopers to the player. LCPD billboards can also be found in Alderney.

There is an occasional glitch where if the player hits a police vehicle at very high speeds, the player will not gain a wanted star for an unknown reason. The occupants of the police vehicle will simply ignore the fact the player hits them.

The LCPD seems to have a very low and lethal tolerance for pedophiles, indicated by the five star wanted level that is incurred when the player accesses Littlelacysurprisepageant.com.

At the LCPD Station in East Holland, if the player enters the parking lot in the back and ascends the stairs up to the helipad, he can find three police officers surrounding a person lying down on the floor.

Normal police officers wearing short-sleeved shirts with bare arms are prominent on LCPD billboards etc., however in-game only overweight officers will have this appearance, with other officers wearing a black undershirt with long sleeves underneath the shirt. It is likely that such officers appeared in the beta stages of the game, and it is possible to 'restore' these officers via modding the PC version.

On the beach in the northwestern corner of Bohan, the player can find a lone police officer standing next to a homeless person lying on the sand.

GTA IV is unique for letting the player be able to shoot or hit the gun out of an enemy's hands without killing them. When a police officer's pistol is shot off, they may flee or occasionally fight on unarmed. When any other weapon a police officer is wielding is shot off, they will pull out a pistol.

Though there are only male police officers present in GTA IV, originally there were female police officers as well, as seen in the first Trailer.

Recruitment billboards can be found outside certain LCPD stations. It has a phone number on it saying 555-RECRUIT. It is possible to phone it but nothing will happen.

The radios which the police officers carry along with them are unlimited, sometimes they will drop it to the ground whenever they are done using it, but they will use another one if they need it again. The radios dropped by the police officers can be picked up by the player and they can be thrown as objects. Should a police officer contact or receive command through their radios for more than one time while on the same spot, the radios dropped by the police officer will end up flooding the ground. However, the police officers usually stick it in their pocket, the most efficient way to make them let the radio fall on the ground is to push them, thus making them use another one.

In GTA IV, whenever NPCs are arrested and escorted to a police vehicle (Police Cruiser or Police Patrol), the police officers in the police vehicle will usually drive the criminal NPC around the road without even making effort to transport them to a Police Station. The criminal will eventually get off the police vehicle if something interrupts it (e.g: shooting) without even being treated as resisting arrest, the same happens with other emergency service of the city, probably because they weren't programmed to do so.

In GTA IV, players can get NPC drivers arrested by a nearby police officer by attacking the NPCs' vehicles with their fist or a melee weapon (doing this does not gives the player any wanted level), causing the NPC drivers to get out of their vehicle, and attack the player which will cause the nearby police officers to take action against the NPC without having the player to retaliate at the NPC.

If the player goes to Silicon Street in Varsity Heights, Algonquin (the street one block south of the major street with a Burger Shot and a bridge leading to Alderney) with five or six stars, they will find police officers on the roof shooting with PSG-1s. Similarly armed officers will spawn at the top of some other buildings during a five or six star wanted level.

In one of the loading screens of GTA IV, two LCPD officers are seen. One of them is carrying a SPAS-12 with a folded stock and the other is carrying an MP5A3. Neither of these two weapons are available for the player to use in the actual game but a variant of the MP5A3 called the MP-10 is available. The MP5 was seen being wielded by Niko in screenshots before the game was released, but was ultimately replaced by the MP-10.

Sometimes, if the player attains a 1-star wanted level in front of a police officer, he might say "Out comes Rosco!". This is a reference to The Dukes of Hazzard where one of the County Sheriffs is named Rosco.

In an artwork (see above) of some LCPD officers, one police officer is firing a Desert Eagle and another one is holding a pistol that resembles the Beretta M9 This is inaccurate, as the Desert Eagle is never used by the LCPD, and the Beretta M9 is not seen in the game. This possibly means that the Desert Eagle might have originally been used by the police, and that the Beretta M9 might have originally been in the game.

Despite yelling numerous warnings at civilians while chasing the player, the police seem to have no regard for human life, going so far as running down pedestrians in an attempt to catch the player.

Slim police officers appear be Caucasian, African-American, Asian-American or Latin (but in this case they are Hispanic officers who speak Spanish). However, ASP officers are exclusively Caucasian; furthermore, in Episodes from Liberty City, African-American officers are seemingly replaced by Asian-American ones. Overweight officers are either Caucasian or African-American regardless of whether they appear in the original GTA IV or in Episodes from Liberty City.

Overweight police officers do not spawn by default in Alderney. Furthermore, they do not simultaneously spawn alongside slim officers; instead the game will alternate between the two types of officers, something which is noticeable if surviving a wanted level for a prolonged period of time.

Usually the overweight officers will only use their pistols, meaning that they do not equip Pump Shotguns when exiting a police vehicle nor do they wield a Carbine Rifle in areas where slimmer police officers would do so. However if they are in a policehelicopter or a Police Predator, they will use the Carbine Rifle (or the Advanced MG in The Ballad of Gay Tony) as normal.

There is a model error in all of the police officers in the game regardless of belonging to the LCPD or ASP; if an officer is driving a Police Cruiser or Police Patrol, his hat will disappear, once he exits the car, the hat will reappear, though sometimes it won't. This is common to most pedestrians in the game, however.

Contrary to the LCPD, ASP officers can be found much more often in Alderney highways than the LCPD, indicating they are Highway Patrol/State Police.

In the Spanish version of GTA IV, LCPD officers and the whole department overall are called "la pasma" as well as "maderos" by the characters, these are all referencing the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía (the national and main police department in Spain) as well as some other police departments in Madrid, Spain.

When the officers are shouting through the megaphone during a chase, the police sirens will go off until the officer stops talking.

As seen in the instruction manual for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the LCPD is running an 'GUNS FOR CA$H' [sic] amnesty program that implores people to hand in used weapons in return for cash money. Humorously the same page for the amnesty invites those reading it to log onto AmmuNation.net and purchase new, military-grade weaponry after handing in their original weapons, which can be seen to defeat the purpose of the program.

If the player hits a civilian's car next to a police car, the officer inside may report the accident, saying things like "MVA at my location" or "We've got an accident here".

LCPD in GTA IV is unique for continuing to shoot the player, even if he's Wasted.

The police cars the LCPD uses in GTA IV and it's episodes has blue and white livery but in GTA Chinatown Wars the livery of their police cars are black and white.